Experiences with BVD in Beef and Dairy Herds in Georgia LEE JONES DVM, MS UGA COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE TIFTON VETERINARY DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY TIFTON, GA
Jul 18, 2015
Experiences with BVD in
Beef and Dairy Herds in
GeorgiaLEE JONES DVM, MS
UGA COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
TIFTON VETERINARY DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY
TIFTON, GA
Justification for BVD Eradication
Decrease morbidity in stocker and feedlot cattle
Decreased mortality – Current herd inventory – every calf matters
Increase production, decreased treatment costs, improved efficiency
Antimicrobial use – presence of PI’s increases need to treat cattle
Reduce and refine antimicrobial use – pathogen reduction will be key
Improved herd performance – farm level
BVD reduces reproductive efficiency – decreased weaning weights and rates
Cow – calf operations
15,000 farms with beef cattle
400,000 beef cows – avg herd less than 30 hd
245,000 calves sold through Georgia sale barns
Stocker operations
Upgraders and backgrounders – order buyers
Purebred or seedstock operations
Dairy - 15% of beef source
Beef Production in Georgia
Challenges
Different owner motivations
Active cattle owners – approach their herd in a business like manner
Passive owners – savings account approach with low inputs and low expectations
Lack of local data
Prevalence in GA? (0.14%?; Lawrence, et al, AAVLD, 2007)
Producer knowledge
Producer concern
Education objectives
Increase awareness
Increase activity
Veterinary Client Patient Relationship
Sorting Out the Data
Lack of regional prevalence data and producer awareness hinder developing strategies to effectively deal with BVD
Producers may be more motivated by loss of market or market discounts than market premiums
Recent South Georgia Cases
Adel, GA – new cattle owner – 2013
Claxton, GA – referral veterinarian – 3/16 calves positive; 45 cows
Dairy calf raiser – PI’s; 40-50 calves per week
Increase in pinkeye and recurrent pneumonia
Bison herd with calf loss, low calf production, blind calves
Incidence of BVD
Positive Cases
Since 2010
Does not include SN, FA, VI
Year # Tests Incidence %
2010 2400 0.79%
2011 941 0.96%
2012 1177 1.36%
2013 1031 0.78%
2014 1654 1.33%
Owner education
Past articles and programs present the worst case scenario of BVD
BVD doesn’t always present with severe symptoms
Lack of records and controlled breeding seasons
Owners are somewhat more motivated in this current cattle market
Effects of BVD are not the same for each production phase
Owner Education
Cow-calf farmer
Typically BVD causes an absence of pregnancies and calves
Without records and pregnancy diagnosis data the effect of BVD is non-
specific
Importance of BVD surveillance is lost amongst other important issues
Solutions
Education programs
Local producer meetings – 80 local GCA chapters
Collecting local data
Use on farm data in VCPR to improve animal health and welfare
Post-market data isn’t helpful to eradicate BVD from farms
Valid testing
Adopting quality control standards (Edmondson, et al , 2007)
Reliable test kits
Data sharing and /or traceability
Proposed studies
Proposal to provide cattle owner education programs in counties with the
highest concentration of beef and dairy cattle
Proposal to test bulk milk tank samples in southeast
Limitations of this approach
Proposal being developed to sample sale barn source beef calves either
at the order buying facility or livestock auction market
We would need to randomly sample 750 calves; 95% probability; 95% CI +/-5%
Assuming 350,000 calves and 0.4% prevalence
Summary
“Don’t know what we don’t know”
Nor do we have any stats to know if we are making progress
According to the national data we may be heading in the wrong
direction
Some owners do not appear to be motivated by premiums
More producers are paying attention to unproductive cows during
high markets